Conservancy Will Buy 8 Ranches for Central Valley Nature Preserve

Beginning one of its most ambitious undertakings, the Nature Conservancy said Monday it has agreed to buy eight ranches as the nucleus of a preserve to protect Central Valley ecosystems threatened with extinction.

“This is a genetic rescue effort,” attorney Russ Van Herik said from the San Francisco headquarters of the nonprofit group, which uses private contributions to purchase and set aside land.

Trying to Stay Ahead

“We are trying to get one step ahead of the legal and biological crunch that is now looming in the San Joaquin Valley.”

Pressures from agriculture, industry and urban development in recent decades have eliminated all but 4% of the valley’s original wildlife habitat, he said.

Involved in the deal disclosed Monday are 82,000 acres of farm and ranch land on the Carrizo Plains owned or controlled by Oppenheimer Industries Inc., a Kansas City-based agricultural and recreational land concern.

The deal, in which the buyers will assume debt and Oppenheimer will receive cash, a note and about 40 acres of recreation properties near Fresno, was valued at $14.5 million.

About $5.5 million will come from the Nature Conservancy, $4 million from the federal government and a smaller undetermined amount from the state, Van Herik said.

The Carrizo Plains, about 150 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, are located about midway between Santa Maria and Bakersfield in a valley separating the Coast and Temblor mountain ranges.

Eventually, Van Herik said, the Nature Conservancy hopes to expand the Carrizo Plains reserve to 200,000 acres and to establish a series of satellite preserves throughout the San Joaquin Valley and its foothills, bringing the total to several hundred thousand acres.

“We see the Carrizo Plains as a macro-reserve, in effect a genetic mother ship for a series of preserves in the San Joaquin Valley . . . so biological diversity is truly protected for the long haul,” Van Herik said.

The Carrizo Plains are a complex of alkali wetlands, saltbush scrub and annual grassland.

The preserve will be designed to protect such animals as the San Joaquin kit fox, blunt-nosed leopard lizard, giant kangaroo rat, peregrine falcon, bald eagle, antelope squirrel, short-nosed kangaroo rat and numerous rare plants, as well as providing a safe habitat for 11 other species of reptiles, 100 species of birds and 40 species of mammals.

Breeding Grounds

The Carrizo Plains also had been a primary breeding grounds for the California condor until they were all captured and put into captive breeding programs. If condors are reintroduced into the wild, the plains may again become a primary area for them, Van Herik said.

Pronghorn antelope and tule elk, both of which were decimated by hunters in the late 1800s, are being or will be reintroduced into the wild in the region, Van Herik said.

Van Herik said the conservancy had not planned to disclose the deal until it closes in about 10 days. But Oppenheimer, a publicly held company, announced it Monday because of public-disclosure requirements.

Nationally, the 35-year-old Nature Conservancy has acquired more than 3 million acres of land in more than 4,700 deals to establish preserves to protect habitat, animals and foliage. In California, it has acquired 165,000 acres in 160 projects, not including the Carrizo Plains deal.

Other California acquisitions by the group include a portion of the Coachella Valley to protect the endangered fringe-toed lizard, a section of the Santa Monica Mountains, 90% of Santa Cruz Island off Santa Barbara, a portion of Elkhorn Slough in Monterey County, land along the McCloud River in Shasta County and the largest remaining stand of valley oak riparian forest along the Cosumnes River between Stockton and Sacramento.